This invention relates to fluid transferring apparatus, and more particularly to marine loading arms especially for use on offshore located facilities. The invention especially relates to single-point mooring systems with equipment for transferring fluid cargo between the mooring station and the transport or reservoir vessel.
Ordinarily when using marine loading arms to transfer more than one type of fluid product between a tanker or other marine vessel and a reservoir facility, a separate arm is employed for each product. In cases where the movements of the tanker are small, this method has usually been satisfactory. However, where bad weather, high tides or other climatic or environmental conditions cause very large tanker movements, and where space at the tanker manifold or on the offshore loading facility is limited, it often is difficult to avoid interference between the several arms while they are in service.
Another disadvantage with conventional loading arms is that maneuvering them to couple them to a tanker manifold can be a difficult and time-consuming task, especially where there is considerable relative movement between the tanker and the buoy or tower on which the arms are mounted. This disadvantage becomes acute when bad weather requires that the arm be uncoupled from the manifold before fluid transfer is completed, for when the weather improves the arm again must be coupled to the tanker to finish the fluid transferring operation. Recoupling usually takes as much time as the original coupling step, and is fraught with the same difficulties. This problem can occur more often at offshore loading stations where a marine tanker is permanently moored to serve as a temporary storage reservoir, and loading arms are employed to convey the fluid from the mooring buoy or tower to the storage tanker.